1. Field of Art
The present invention generally relates to the field of printing. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for printing independent of location and using a universal print module. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a print key for use in printing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, computing devices have become common place and are used in almost every environment such as office, home, public settings, library, hotels, restaurants, etc. The computing devices are often portable such as but not limited to laptop computers, notebook computers, netbook computers, smart phones and the like. Even for corporate portable computing devices, the portable computing devices are often used in multiple different office locations. When the portable computing devices are used at the base office for the user, the portable computing devices typically have a printer set up and installed so the user is able to print. However, when the portable computing device is use in one of the other offices, it typically does not have a printer set up for that location. This creates a problem because it is often difficult to print using one's portable computing device except when in one's base office.
While it is not impossible to be able to print at these other locations, it typically requires a significant amount of time and effort to configure one's computer to be able to print at such other office locations. For example, users often will ask colleagues to printed documents for them typically by transferring their file to their colleague using a USB flash drive rather than trying to configure their computing device to print. One particular problem is that in order to print on a specific printer, the print driver for that printer must be loaded and enabled on a computing device. Offices often include several printers of different makes and models, and thus, requiring different print drivers. Another problem in printing is connection of the portable computing device to the printer for interaction with each other because many networks have security that prevents such interaction.